Implementing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has long been recognised as essential to achieving sustainable peace and prosperity in the ASEAN region. ASEAN member states remain committed to gender equality and the full protection of women’s rights. They also remain steadfast in their aim to maintain regional peace, address shared security concerns and advance development and prosperity for all citizens. Member states consider the development of this Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security (RPA WPS) as a critical step to making progress on these commitments. The RPA WPS aims to mobilise the whole of ASEAN to advance implementation of the WPS agenda to promote sustainable peace and security for all citizens.

The RPA WPS builds upon decades of political engagement in the ASEAN region on issues pertinent to the WPS agenda, as expressed by the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in the ASEAN Region (2004), the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Elimination of Violence Against Children in ASEAN (2013) and the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence against Women (2015). Signalling their strong commitment, ASEAN leaders adopted the Joint Statement on Promoting Women, Peace and Security in ASEAN during the 31st ASEAN Summit in November 2017. The ASEAN Ministerial Dialogue on Strengthening Women’s Role for Sustainable Peace and Security, held in September 2020, further reiterated ASEAN’s determination to ensure the integration of WPS into regional policies and frameworks across the three ASEAN community pillars: Political-Security Community, Economic Community and Socio-Cultural Community. The development of a Regional Plan of Action on WPS was one of the key recommendations of the ASEAN Regional Study on Women, Peace and Security, which was launched in 2021 with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and UN Women